UK skills shortage stalls growth

An acute skills shortage in the UK has forced one company to take matters into its own hands. And as Laura Frykberg reports, Brexit is likely to exacerbate the problem.

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Demand is accelerating at Norton motorcycles...
With orders coming in from around the world..
But the British company says it's struggling to keep up, because of one key problem.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTON MOTORCYCLE COMPANY'S CEO STUART GARNER SAYING:
I can't drive the growth as fast as we are able, bizarrely not because of models or orders or finance, but people. And it's super frustrating that we can't get the staff to come in and take advantage of the orders we have.
CEO Stuart Garner says young British workers are coming in, without proper skills.
It's gotten so bad, he's started his own apprenticeship scheme to train them himself.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) NORTON MOTORCYCLE COMPANY'S CEO STUART GARNER SAYING:
B tech and some of the colleges we used to have, they're not there, and they don't seem to have the funding that some of the universities have.
It seems it's not a new problem.
SOUNDBITE (English) CITY INDEX MARKET ANALYST, KEN ODELUGA, SAYING:
We know the reason why investment fell off a cliff is because of the global financial crisis, and it never really came back.
People are still in work though - between March and May the UK unemployment rate fell to 4.5 percent...
It's lowest level since 1975.
But the amount people are earning - just isn't keeping up.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) BMO GLOBAL ASSET MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR, STEVEN BELL SAYING:
The paradox is that we have got super low unemployment, right down to the level that would normally cause an acceleration in wages, but it's not happening.
Garner says he's committed to paying decent wages...
And is even offering staff overtime to help deliver a backlog of orders..
Many of those though are going abroad - no surprise perhaps when prices start at $15,000

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